Posted
by
Soulskill
on Friday January 17, 2014 @11:01AM
from the eyes-in-the-skies dept.

cold fjord writes "Politico reports, 'Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she once found a drone peeking into the window of her home — the kind of cautionary tale she wants lawmakers to consider as they look at allowing commercial drone use. ... she used the episode to implore lawmakers to "proceed with caution." Feinstein said she encountered the flying robot while a demonstration was taking place outside her house. She said she went to the window to peek out — and "there was a drone right there at the window looking out at me." ... "Obviously the pilot of the drone had some surprise because the drone wheeled around and crashed ..." she said. ... Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that she has seen firsthand the surveillance capabilities of drones and called civilian privacy concerns "significant." She ... recommended a search warrant requirement. Feinstein said she is working on legislation with the Commerce Committee and urged senators to move swiftly to create "strong, binding enforceable privacy policies that govern drone operations before the technology is upon us."'"

How dare you try to listen in on privacies like political negotiations as we carve up all your reality and feed it back to you in exchange for votes! Do you know how hard it is to keep cover memes hiding the real reasons we do things in place?

Okay, I can on one hand understand the lack of love for the dear Senator. With the other, let us not miss an advantage to press an issue that till now did not seem important to our Surveillance Lady in Waiting. Finally a Senator gets a first hand taste (and let's assume it really happened*) of getting spied on and she's pissed off. Now she wants warrants and oversight so let's help in that direction to the full extent of what it means to have your privacy assaulted.

I think it is sad that one of the privileged needs to be affected before they react with more then a sniff. It would be grand if our elected officials actually cared a damn for the people they represent, but I for one welcome her "outrage" and hope she uses it to tighten privacy laws and get tough on those who ignore our Constitutional rights.

* all this noise of whether it was a real drone, it was made up, or did or did not carry a camera is plain stupid. If it happened then good, she got a taste of the future and does not like it. If it was fake or trumped up so she can cited a "legitimate" reason for her outcry, who cares. The story is her enlightened position.

For politicos like Feinstein, their Party or their alleged philosophical beliefs are as illuminating to their decision process as the logos on a NASCAR jacket. She says whatever sounds the most reasonable and responsible and occasionally stamps her feet and waves her arms and does the least to trouble the status quo as possible.

Meanwhile she makes money investing in military related stocks, and builds a portfolio based on insider knowledge (as is legal for all Senators) and retires much wealthier than when she entered office. Rinse and repeat with the next political opportunist.

This is such undiluted hypocrisy, given her reaction to the Snowden saga. It would be funny, if it was not so very sad.

Very true. But I am still changing my will so I will be buried with my ice skates. Hell has frozen over. Diane Feinstein has finally found an expansion of government authoritarianism that she is unwilling to support. Wow.